Apolitical ‘Islamisation’? On the limits of religiosity in montane Morocco

This paper looks at ongoing concerns about the role of Islam in social (ijtimâ'iy) and private (lkhass) life from the perspective of Ichelhiyn Berbers in the Central High Atlas mountains of Morocco. It charts the evolution of local debates surrounding what it means and entails to be a good Muslim and relates them to similar phenomena in the surrounding cities and plains, focusing on the ways in which they travel through social space. It argues that one of the key characteristics of contemporary "Islamist" discourses in both Morocco and elsewhere (the idea that religion must be the cornerstone of political activity) is strikingly absent from the local scene and explores this absence in the context of people's ideas of how politics can and should be conducted at the village and tribal level.